Lawsuit seeks to enlarge state Legislature

SACRAMENTO (AP) – A lawsuit filed by supporters of splitting California in two is seeking to enlarge the state legislature.

The federal lawsuit filed against California’s secretary of state argues that rural counties aren’t fairly represented in the legislature, The Sacramento Bee reported Tuesday. The lawsuit argues that 40 state senators and 80 Assembly members is insufficient representation for a state of 40 million people.

The lawsuit also argues that apportioning legislative districts equally by population has diluted the votes of rural residents and given more representation to city dwellers. The lawsuit seeks one representative for each county and to add more members to the Assembly.

The lawsuit was filed by activists seeking to carve a new “State of Jefferson” out of 21 Northern California counties.

Mark Baird, a retired pilot from Siskiyou County and a leader of the movement, said he hopes the lawsuit will show California politicians that there’s a serious desire to split the state in two. A settlement in the activists’ favor could prompt lawmakers to split the state rather than take on an onerous task of reorganizing the legislature, Baird said.

So far, Baird and other activists have been unsuccessful in con- vincing a lawmaker to take up their cause and introduce statesplitting legislation.

“Not one single legislator ... would even bother to give us five minutes of their time,” Baird said. “If all we get out of this lawsuit is more and better representation, then that’s a good day for everybody.”

Nathaniel Persily, a redistricting expert at Stanford Law School, called the lawsuit “a nonstarter.”